


Face Your Fears

by Springmagpies



Series: Promptober 2019 [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Haunted House, Promptober 2019, earth vs space, team earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 18:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20916314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Springmagpies/pseuds/Springmagpies
Summary: Jemma gets invited to go to a haunted house and ends up facing a fear she hasn't thought about in three years. Her feelings for Leopold Fitz.





	Face Your Fears

**Author's Note:**

> Back again for Day 4 of Promptober. This prompt is Haunted House! Again, it is also a part of Earth vs Space for Team Earth. I really loved writing this one so I hope you enjoy!

It was not Jemma’s favorite idea in the world, going through a haunted house with her friend, her friend’s boyfriend, and friend’s boyfriend's friend. Firstly, it was far too long of a sentence to try and explain to anyone, and secondly, Jemma didn’t do very well in haunted houses. She always ended up screaming herself hoarse and wishing to be home with a warm mug of tea and a book. Also, for  _ some _ reason, she wasn’t super excited about embarrassing herself in front of a total stranger. However, the whole situation got so much worse for Jemma when she arrived at the spooky-looking building, her stomach plummeting when she saw who stood next to her friend, Bobbi. She recognized Bobbi’s boyfriend, the ever-charming Hunter, but she was surprised when she also recognized the man he was talking to. Leopold Fitz. 

Jemma’s eyes widened to saucers when she spotted him, leaning against the iron, painted to look rusted, fencing with a jacket draped over his arm. He was just as handsome as she remembered him, though he had definitely matured since she had last seen him, what must have been three years ago. His curls were shorter and he had a rough scruff bringing out his jawline. He also stepped up his style game, trading in the cardigans of his university days for a more adult look, sporting dark jeans and a deep blue button-up, rolling up the sleeves to display toned forearms. However, he still seemed to be partial to a good pair of worn trainers. At a distance and unable to actually see that level of detail, Jemma could at least picture just the way his blue eyes gleamed in the golden street-light. The memory of a similar time, where his eyes dazzled by the light of a lonely park lamp as they sat side by side on a cold bench, sparked in her mind and Jemma actually felt as though the earth might fall away, or perhaps come closer if she didn’t steady herself.

She saw the smile on Bobbi’s face slip slightly as a quizzical expression took its place, leading Jemma to realize she be sporting an anxious look on her own face. She somehow managed to move her feet onwards towards the line of people waiting to pay to be scared, despite the desire to run; for she very much wanted to run far away from the house of haunts and from the “one that got away” that was leaning against the fence.

As Jemma approached where her friend was standing, Fitz looked over Hunter’s shoulder and, though Jemma couldn’t tell at that distance, stopped breathing for a moment. His mouth formed a little “o” as he blinked at her, leading Jemma to blush profusely and thank God for the darkness of the night.

“Hey, Jems!” Bobbi greeted as Jemma hopped the fence to stand next to Hunter. “Glad you could make it! I know the drive here sucks. So, introductions. Jemma, this is the friend I was telling you about! This is--”

“Fitz,” Jemma finished, trying her best to remember to take in air. 

“You two know each other?” Hunter asked, a shadow of a slightly devilish smile falling on his face. 

Fitz’s cheeks tinted pink, Jemma assumed from the chill, as he scratched behind his ear. “Uh, yeah. We, uh--we were friends at uni.”

“Really,” Hunter said. He elongated the word as a bright gleam sprang into his eyes. Bobbi put her arm around her boyfriend’s waist, subtly pinching his side and causing him to straighten with a jolt.

“Well, then this is a fun surprise and gets awkward introductions out of the way!” Bobbi said cheerily in her best attempt to steer the night back into more fun territory. “Jems, we already got your ticket so your set.”

Jemma smiled, taking the ticket Bobbi held in her outstretched hand and trying to steady herself once more. “Thank you.”

Naturally, as couples do, Hunter and Bobbi stood together and began moving slightly ahead of their friends. This left Fitz and Jemma to stand side by side in the chilly night air as they waited for the line to move inside. As the string of people lurched forward, Fitz’s shoulder brushed Jemma’s arm and she shivered slightly.

“Are you cold?” he asked, his eyes scanning her thinly covered arms before he looked at her, though his eyes avoided locking with hers. 

“Oh, I’m fine. Just expected us to be inside quicker is all. I’m sure it's ridiculously hot in the building,” Jemma replied casually. However, by the looks of the line, it appeared they wouldn’t be inside for a fair amount of minutes.

“You can wear my jacket,” Fitz offered, holding out the black zip-up hoodie he had draped over his arm, “I’m not wearing it.”

Jemma smiled when she noticed the familiarity of the object. 

“You still have that?” she laughed, nodding to the worn piece of clothing. He quickly looked down at it and back up, forgetting that he was avoiding looking into her eyes. The pink blush returned once more to his cheeks and Jemma couldn’t brush it off as the chill. 

“Uh… yeah. I mean, it’s a good jacket.”

“It’s a very good jacket. That thing got me through our chemistry lectures without freezing to death.”

She gratefully took the hoodie from his hands and he smiled at her, letting out a little breathy chuckle. “I still hold fast to the opinion that it wasn’t the classroom but rather that your body temperature is a degree or two below everyone else's.”

“No,” Jemma shot back as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, “you just didn’t notice how cold it was because you’re a human furnace.”

“Fair point.”

The line continued to move and Fitz and Jemma fell back into a nice rhythm of conversation, trading stories of what they’d been up to, what their lives were like and so forth. They had been having such a nice discussion that they didn’t even notice that they had not only made it inside but were now almost on their way to walking through the haunted house.

Seeing the dark entrance drawing nearer, Jemma began to fidget, her palms beginning to sweat from nerves.

Fitz looked over at her with concern lacing his features. Oh, how she had missed that look. “Jemma, are you alright?”

She also missed the way her name sounded on his lips. Who was she kidding? She missed everything about him. However, she swallowed her desire to hug him and tell him just how much she missed him and admitting how much she had wished he had done what she had thought he had been about to do that night in the lamplight. 

“I hate haunted houses,” she muttered instead, trying her best to smile. A flash of fake lightning went off somewhere and she nearly jumped out of her skin. He placed a soothing hand on her arm as they continued forward in the line. 

“They’re not my favorite either,” he concurred, his face scrunching. “I mean, I do okay in them as long as nothing too scary jumps out at me or if there isn’t too much gore. Or if there aren’t any clowns. Or clowns with knives.”

Jemma laughed, the distant look on Fitz’s face alleviating some of her nerves and causing the familiar butterflies she used to get around him to spring up in its place.

“So, essentially you're scared by ninety percent of what is in a haunted house.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Fitz chuckled as his shoulders reached his ears before dropping back down.

“Party of four,” they heard Hunter say ahead of them to the zombie in a bell boy outfit.

The zombie nodded and took down the red rope separating them from the attraction, letting the group of four through. Hunter took ahold of Bobbi’s hand, whether to provide support and take it wasn’t clear. 

The fear bubbling in Jemma’s stomach slowly mounted as they were plunged into total darkness before rounding the corner into imitation candlelight. The first section of the haunted house was themed as a ghostly hotel and the eerie sound of footsteps and doors creaking had Jemma walking slowly and deliberately. A person passed down the large hall in front of them, slamming the door behind them with a bang. Jemma jumped out of her skin, pressing her hands to her eyes.

“Jems, you okay?” she heard Fitz whisper from somewhere to her left. She opened her eyes and nodded, smiling lightly when his hand fell on her shoulder, steadying her. She smiled at him gratefully and pushed onwards. Each scare sent shivers down her spine, but the mood was lightened by Hunter, who continued to find every swear word he could shout into the stuffy air.

The next section didn’t get them as bad, none of them being particularly afraid of the zombie section. The room after that, however, was another story. The moment Fitz spotted the red and white stripes of a big top tent, he immediately tensed and his instinct didn’t let him down. The first thing to pop out at them from the shadows was a knife-wielding clown, the white-painted face split into a terrifying grin, the corners of his mouth peeled back into a gruesome smile. When the red-nosed scare burst through the tarp, Fitz lost it, screaming bloody murder. 

“What the hell!” Fitz breathed, his eyes wide with fear as the clown laughed back into the shadows. He didn’t notice he had grabbed Jemma’s hand for support. When he did, however, he quickly let go, smiling apologetically.

“Sorry. Bloody clowns.”

Pushing onwards, they continued to fight through more clowns, as well as one particularly terrifying ringmaster who nearly caused Hunter to pee himself. Bobbi, meanwhile, lost it in the following room as needles were pushed into dummies by rather frightening doctors, having to shut her eyes tight as Hunter wound her through to the exit.

It was in the last room that Jemma began thinking of tea and books. The room was designed as some kind of optical illusion, making it feel as though they were balancing above an infinite black hole. Jemma’s knees began to wobble and, even though Hunter and Bobbi ahead of her were giggling and pretending to push one another, she felt as though she were going to collapse. The glowing black and white spiral painted on the walls was not helping matters. Jemma’s heart hammered in her chest as her fear of heights kicked in and she couldn’t get her feet to move, despite her mind registering somewhere that the illusion wasn’t real. 

“Jemma?” Fitz asked behind her and she turned to look at him, her eyes wide and her breathing short. Fitz realized she was close to a panic attack.

“Hey, hey, hey. Jemma you’re alright. Look at me. It’s okay. Here--uh--let me get in front of you really fast.” His voice was soothing and he quickly inched past her, holding onto her shoulders so she didn’t feel like she would be pushed off. He held out his hand and she wound her fingers through his, relishing in their warmth. In the back of her mind, she thought about just how clammy her hands must be, but Fitz didn’t seem to notice and or care as they slowly inched across the walkway, their hands clasped together. When they finally reached the exit of the room, Jemma fell into Fitz as her legs gave slightly. The backs of her hands were against his chest with her face in her palms. She shook her head against him, muttering curse words under her breath, before giggling slightly when he stopped himself from chuckling at her choice of profanity.

“We did it!” Bobbi cheered as they exited into the chilly night air. Hunter whooped as well but Fitz and Jemma did not join in, Jemma still recovering from the tight-rope room, but they did return the other pair’s smiles. As Hunter continued to whoop, Bobbi stopped once she noticed how close Jemma was walking to Fitz. She shot her friend a little curious glance and Jemma returned the look with a tiny shrug and a grin. She wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but she just knew she wasn’t ready for Fitz to leave, unable to accept the chance that they spend another three years without seeing one another. 

Bobbi and Hunter parted, waving from out their car window and telling their friends to drive safely. However, when it came time for the other two to leave the parking lot, they couldn’t seem to walk to their respective cars.

“It--it was good to see you again,” Fitz started as they stood under the glow of the street lights.

“Yeah. I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” he said and his blue eyes burned.

A little smile danced on his lips as he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. The small gesture gave Jemma goosebumps. He was still the Fitz she remembered. Suddenly, after facing the hauntingly terrifying house of horrors, Jemma felt brave. 

“Do you remember the last night before you left for home? The night we went to the park?”

He looked deeper into her eyes and she fought to keep her resolve, repeating,  _ at least it isn’t the tight-rope room. at least it isn’t the tight-rope room _ , in her head.

“Yeah, I remember,” he replied, his voice almost a stage whisper.

Jemma squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath and looking back into the blue depths of his eyes. “Why didn’t you kiss me?”

The pink tint to his cheeks returned and his breath hitched. To Jemma’s surprise, it looked like he was about to laugh.

“Because I was terrified. Because it was the thing I wanted to more than anything,” he rushed, staring at his shoes before bouncing his gaze back up to meet hers once more.

“I really wanted you too as well,” Jemma admitted, her cheeks matching his.

Fitz swallowed, but courage coursed through his veins. “What if I said I still really wanted to kiss you.” 

“I’d tell you to do it already.”

And with that, feeling brave in the streetlamp next to a haunted house, Jemma finally got her time-suspending kiss with Leo Fitz.


End file.
